Rotor assembly apparatus



Fella. 16, 1954 w. (3. ROGERS v 2,669,470

ROTOR ASSEMBLY APPARATUS Filed Dec. 18, 1950 Coarse Wall-rial Fig.1

INVENTOR WAYNE C. fiaamw ATTORNEY Patented Feb. 16, 1954 2,669,470

Riley Stoker Corporation,'Worcester, Mass, a corporation of Massachusetts Application December 18, 1950, Serial No. 201,305

This invention relates to a rotor assembly for a pulverizer or the like, and more particularly to the construction and arrangement of a rotatable shaft and various parts mounted on the shaft to rotate therewith.

Many pulverizers of various types include a shaft rotatably supported in suitable bearings and carrying one or more disks or wheels having central hubs mounted on the shaft and.

*ing a still different coefficient of heat expansion, f

4 Claims. ((31. 287- 52) the shaft coefficient being intermediate the to.

161110161117 of the hubs and the coefficient of i the sleeve.

Thus if the hubs have a smaller coefficient than the shaft, as in the case ofcastiron hubs and a carbon steel shaft, the sleeve will be made of a material having a greater coefficient than the shaft. Thus the greater expansion of the sleeve will counteract the smaller expansion of the hubs. By providing a. sleeve of usu ly keyed r t T h-ubor hubs are f ea suitable material, with due regard to the diquently located on .a cylindrical portion of the mensions of the other parts and their coefficients shaft and urged axially against a shoulder on the of heat expansion, the axial expansion of the Shaft y means of a screw threaded nut or the group of elements may be made substantially the like. vIt is often found that when such machines same as that of the shaft, so that the assembly are placed in service a pronounced poundin O will remain tight 1 regardless of a considerable vibration will arise. change in temperature.

I have discovered that such difiiculties are the Referring to the drawings illustrating one emresult of differencesin the heat expansion of th bodiment of the invention, and in which like various parts of the rotor assembly. Pulverizers reference numerals indicate like parts, are often supplied with hot air to aid in evapo- 0 Fig. lis a verticallongitudinal section through rating moisture from the material being pulvera pulverizer; ized and thereby make it possibletc operate the Fig. 2 is an enlarged view of a portion of Fig. machines at reasonable capacity with wet mate- 1; and i rials. Such hot air of course raises the temper- Fig. 3 is a section taken on the line 3-3 of 'ature of the machines and causes the various Fig. 2. l parts thereof to expand. The shafts are usually In the drawings there is shown a pulverizer made of carbon steel, whereas the rotor hubs are of the general type disclosed in the patent to usually made of cast iron, which has an appre- Riley et al.No. 1,759,134 granted May 20, 1930. ciably smaller coefficient of heat expansion than The machine illustrated comprises a casing 10 carbon steel. Consequently as a machine bewhich is divided internally by an upright wall H comes hot the shaft will expand longitudinally into a pulverizing chamber l2 and a fan chamto a greater extent than the hubs, the nut will ber 14. A horizontal shaft [5 extends through no longer hold the hubs tightly against the the casing and is rotatably supported in suitable shoulder, and vibration will occur. bearings I B and H. The wall II has a central It is accordingly one object of the invention to opening l9 therethrough coaxial with the shaft, Overcome t ese d fi u t s d to provide a simand the fan chamber [4 has a tangentially posipie rotor assembly for a pulverizer or the like tioned outlet 20. An inlet chute 2| for coarse which will remain tight and free from vibration. material leads to an inlet opening 23 in the pul- It is a further object of the invention to, proverizing. chamber wall remote from the fan vide a rotor assembly for a pulverizer or the like chamber, {and a duct 24 conveys hot air to this which can be subjected to considerable change chute. The shaft I5 carries a fan 26 in the fan in temperature without loosening of the various chamber 14 and anupright disk 21 in the pulver- 'parts. izing chamber I 2. i The shaft also carries rejector With these and other objects in view, as will blades 28 which revolve adjacent the opening I9, be apparent to those skilled in the art, the inand two upright disks 29 which are located bevention resides in the combination of parts set tween the disk 21 and the inlet openings 23. The forth in the specification and coveredfby the disk 21 and the rejector blades 28 are secured to claims appended hereto. l a hub 3i, and the two disks 29 are secured to a In accordance with the invention in its prehub32, both these hubs being keyed to the shaft. ferred form, a pulverizer or the like is provided The disk 21 carries revoluble pegs 34 which interwith a rotatable shaft having thereon ashoul- 90 fit with stationary pegs 35 mounted on the wall der and a clamping device spaced axially from H. The disks 29 carry hammers 31 which rethe shoulder. Mounted on the shaft between the volve above a stationary shelf 38 mounted in the shoulder and the device is a group of elements lower portion of the casing. including one or more. hubs and a sleeve and this Referring now particularly to Fig. 2, it will be group of elements is forced axially against the seen that the shaft I5 is shaped to provide an shoulder by means of the clamping device. The "elongated cylindrical portion 40 terminating at hub or hubs are made of a material having adifoneendin ashoulder 4i and at the other end in ferent coefficient of heat expansion from the afscrew-threaded portion 42. The two hubs 3| shaft, and the sleeve is made of a material'hav- A and 32, together with a separating sleeve 44 between them; are mounted on the cylindrical por- 3 tion 40, with the hub 3| engaging the shoulder 4|. A nut 45 is mounted on the threaded portion 42 and engages the hub 32, so that the two hubs and the sleeve may be gripped tightly between the nut and the shoulder 4 I.

Since a considerable quantity of hot air is supplied to the machine with the coarse material, particularly when the material has a high moisture content, the various parts of the machine often reach a high temperature durin the operation. As the shaft and the hubs mounted thereon become heated they will expand. This might not cause any difliculty if these parts were all made of the same material, but this is not the case. Thus the shaft would ordinarily be made of steel, viz. a carbon steel, whereas the hubs 3| and 32 would ordinarily be made of cast iron. "Since carbon steel expands at a higher rate than cast iron, the tendency will be for the hubs to become loose on the shaft when the parts are heated up in operation. This is highly undesirable, since it may result in serious vibration. In order to avoid this difficulty, the sleev is made of a material having a greater coefficient of heat expansion than the carbon steel shaft 45, so that the greater expansion of the sleeve will counteract the lesser expansion of the hubs. Preferably'the lengths of the various parts and their respective coefiicients of heat expansion are so related that the assembly will remain tight regardless of changes in temperature. In the embodiment illustrated the hub 3! has a length of 12% inches, the sleeve 44 has a length of 8 inches, and the hub 32 has a length of 6% inches. Hence the length of the shaft I5 between the shoulder 4i and the nut 45 is 27% inches. In this assemblyit is proposed to make the sleeve 44 of 18-8 stainless steel (18% chromium and 8% nickel), which has (8 X 100 X .0000164) =.0333 inch Since .0333'-.0327: .0006, it will be noted that the assembly will actually be slightly tighter when heated to its normal operating temperature than when cold and idle, the slight difference in expansion of course being taken up elastically. There will be no difficulty with vibration resulting from the loosening of the hubs 3| and 32,. sorlong as the length of the group of clamped elements (the hubs 3l--32 and the sleeve 44) changes with changes in temperature at substantially the same rate as the length of the shaft between the shoulder 4| and the nut 45, as occurs in the example given.

Having thus described, my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letter Patent is:

1. A rotor assembly for a pulverizer or the like adapted to operate at elevated temperatures comprising a rotatable shaft having a shoulder, a clamping device mounted on the shaft and spaced axially from the shoulder, and a group 'ofele- .ments mounted on the shaft between the shoulder and the device and urged axially against the shoulder by the device, the group including a rotor hub and a sleeve made of different materials having different coefiicients of heat expansion, and the shaft being made of a material having a coeflicient of heat expansion intermediate those of the hub and the sleeve, the dimensions and materials for the shaft, sleeve and hubs being 'suchthat the rate of increase with temperature of the length of the shaft between the shoulder and the clamping device is substantially the same as the rate of increase in length of the assembly of the said group of elements.

2. A rotor assembly for a pulverizer or the like adapted to operate at elevated temperatures comprising a rotatable carbonsteel shaft having a shoulder, a clamping device mounted on the shaft and spaced'axially from the shoulder, and a group of elements mounted on. the shaft between the shoulder and the device and urged axially against the shoulder by the device, the group including a cast iron rotor hub and a stainlesssteel sleeve the dimension and materials of the said elements being such that the increase in length of the group at an elevated temperature is substantially the same as the increase in length of the shaft between the shoulder and clamping element.

3. A rotor assembly for a pulverizer or the like adapted to operate at elevated temperatures comprising, a rotatable. shaft having a shoulder, a clamping device mounted on the shaft and spaced axially from the shoulder, and a group of elements mounted on the shaft between the shoulder and the device and urged axially against the shoulder by the'device, the group including at least tWo partsmade of different materials having different coefficients of .heat expansion; the shaft having a coefiicient of heat expansion intermediate those of the said two. parts, and the lengths of the elements and their respective. coeflicients of heat expansion being such that the elements will expand longitudinally the same amount as the shaft between the shoulder and .the clamping device throughout a considerable change intemperature and will remain tightly gripped therebetween.

4. A rotor assembly for a pulverizer or thelike adaptedto operate at elevated temperatures comprising a rotatable shaft formed of medium carbon steel having a shoulder, a clamping. device mounted on the shaft and spaced axially from the shoulder, and a group of elements mounted on the shaft between the shoulder and the device and urged axially against th shoulder by the device, the group including rotor hub means formed of cast iron having a coeflicient of heat expansion less than that of theshaft and a sleeve of a material having a coefficient of heat expansion greater than that of the shaft, the lengths of the element-sand their respective coefficients of heat UNITED STATES PATENTS.

Number Name Date" .1,5'l3,279 Sanford Oct. 28, 1924 1,550,834 Miller Aug..25,' 1925 2,442,254 Whitfield May 25, 1948 

